Regulation of drone software could help prevent accidents

The Met Police is rumoured to be planning to use unmanned
surveillance drones to patrol the skies during the Olympics, but
one expert is warning that these vehicles present a huge public
safety risk.

Robert Dewar is the CEO of AdaCore, which provides secure
software for commercial aviation, defence, and rail companies,
giving him something of a vested interest in the topic. However's
he's also an emeritus professor of computer science at New York
University. He believes that the lack of certification in the
software of unmanned aerial vehicles is a major problem that needs
to be addressed, particularly if we plan to introduce them to our
cities.

"It's one thing flying around Afghanistan where it doesn't
really matter if you crash into the desert or even really kill
people," he told Wired.co.uk, tongue firmly in cheek, referring to
the large number of civilian casualties at the hands of drones in
places like Pakistan and Yemen.

"But it's quite another when you have drones entering civilian
air space."

He mentions a number of worrying security breaches involving
drones, such as the hacking of a US Predator drone by Iran, which
supposedly allowed insurgents to soft land the vehicle and probe its inner
workings. More recently, the Merseyside police lost control of
a £13,000 UAV in a routine training exercise and it was lost,
presumed to have crashed into a river.

Dewar added that in the US and the UK, all commercial aeroplanes
that enter civilian airspace must have their software certified.
"Drones on the other hand require very complex software which
currently doesn't have to be certified. It's hard to believe that
it can be trustworthy."

One challenge is the fact that the term "drone" covers a wide
range of vehicles, ranging from small remote controlled
quadrocopters to large scale, high altitude aircraft, such as the
Predator.

The Civil Aviation Authority has said that it will clear the
airspace above the Olympics, which would eliminate the risk of a
drone colliding with a commercial aircraft. "But they can still
fall on someone's head," he added. "If someone is killed by an
errant drone it would stain the reputation of the Olympics and set
back the use of drones indefinitely. Even the smaller drones can be
dangerous missiles if uncontrolled."

Dewar believes that the safety standards applied to commercial
aircraft should also be applied to drones. "It's hard to justify
not applying the same safety standards when the vehicles are
sharing the same space as people."

Dewar acknowledges that his company has a financial interest in
wanting drones to use more secure code but adds that he doesn't
want to be "too alarmist". "But if we can lose a drone in a river,
I don't see why one couldn't fall on someone's head!"